it gave the obama administration until next week to accept or appeal. meanwhile, a top pentagon civilian official has told the armed services to process applications without regard to sexual orientation. for more on what's next for current and prospective openly gay service members, we go to mark thompson is "time" magazine's washington deputy bureau chief. and aubrey sarvis is the executive director of the service members legal defense network, which advocates in favor of lifting the ban on gays in the military. we thank you both for being here. mark thompson, to you first, though. where do things stand with "don't ask, don't tell"? >> well, judy, we basically have two trains rushing to the same station, i think, in a matter of weeks, "don't ask, don't tell" will be history, one train is the pentagon certification process which has been under way for several months and it's designed to train troops to accept openly gay men and women in their ranks. basically the pentagon made clear today, you know, we don't have to train 100% of our troops to certify,